Wiedenmann’s Winning Ways Guided by Team-First Approach
Dom Palumbo, UTSports.com
Tennis around the world is a sport that is known for its individuality.
Televisions across the globe have showcased the wildly colored outfits of Rafael Nadal—colors that seem to exude the high motor he uses to never let a ball get by him on court.
Fans marvel at the cool and seemingly effortless forehands of Roger Federer.
American fans are familiar with the classic, heavy serve from homegrown legend Andy Roddick.
The players play for individual titles and accolades across almost every continent.
They play for themselves.
At the collegiate level, tennis is a team sport—three doubles matches worth one total point, followed by six singles matches worth a point apiece.
The objective is simple, first to four points wins the match.
In collegiate tennis, that fourth point is known as the “clinching” point.
While Tennessee has had many a great player don the Orange & White, never have any of those players garnered a nickname revolving around this singular point.
But Vols graduate student Luca Wiedenmann, has become known as Tennessee’s “Mr. Clincher.”
On 19 different occasions during his career on Rocky Top, the Augsburg, Germany, native has clinched match point for the Volunteers.
While every clinch may not be cut from the same cloth, Luca’s confidence in those match-defining moments is what has helped pen his name in the UT record book forever.
“I think people giving me the nickname (Mr. Clincher) gave me a lot of confidence,” Wiedenmann said. “I always said, ‘Yeah, I’m the clincher, and if it comes down to me, I’m going to get it done now.’ I think that helped me a lot and when I’m in these positions now, I can always look back at those memories and moments and know that I’ve done it before and can do it again, even when things don’t look good in the moment.”
EARLY YEARS
Wiedenmann’s childhood took place in the mid-sized German city of Augsburg, where he found the sport of tennis through his mom.
“My mom was actually a professional tennis player,” he said. “She wasn’t worldwide-known or anything, but she got to (ranked) around 200 or 150 in the world. She ended her career pretty early in her life and became a tennis coach. When I started going to school, she would give lessons in the afternoon, and I would go with her most of the time and do my homework next to the court. If anyone in her classes was missing or didn’t show up, I would just jump in and play for an hour.”
The foundation was laid there, and eventually his mother placed him in his own group so he could improve his game.
LEAVING HOME
As his talent and abilities quickly improved, Wiedenmann took his next step at a young age to pursue the dream of making tennis his life.
“When I was 13, I really started to think tennis was something I wanted to do,” Wiedenmann recalled. “At that point, I left Augsburg to go to Munich, where I attended a tennis academy for five years from (age) 13 to 18.”
In Munich, Luca was joined on this journey away from home by his best friend, current Baylor tennis standout Constantin Frantzen.
The pair roomed and trained together for five years and chose to pursue playing college tennis in America, together.
“We started talking about it, because some of our friends went to college and we thought that we might want to do that one day as well,” Wiedenmann said. “So, one day we went to an agency in Munich together that helps you in coming to America. And from there, it’s history.”
ON ROCKY TOP
Once the decision to leave Germany was made, Wiedenmann and Frantzen went on trips across the United States to find the best school for them.
For Frantzen it was Baylor in Waco, Texas.
For Wiedenmann, it was the Orange & White and a new life in East Tennessee.
“I visited here and I knew that (the program wasn’t) unbelievably good at that point in time, but I saw all of the opportunity we have here and that sooner or later this would be a good program again,” he said. “And I thought that I could develop well here.”
WIN NO. 1, YEAR NO. 1
Upon his arrival in Knoxville, Wiedenmann was faced with many of the same obstacles every international student-athlete must work through.
He was in a new country, with a new culture, while learning a language that isn’t fully his own, all while trying to balance the life of both a student-athlete and a finance major.
Despite all of that, the journey had to begin. It was a trip to Princeton, New Jersey, for the 2016 Ivy Plus Invitational, where he stepped on court as a Vol for the first time.
“I do know that was my first Fall tournament,” Wiedenmann said. “I just remember we all got there and on the first day all six of us lost. The coach at that time went absolutely in on us, and all I could think was, ‘What have I gotten myself into here? No one can win a match, what is happening? This is going to be horrible.’”
The next day, Wiedenmann earned his first collegiate win over Brown’s Jack Haworth in what he described as not one of his best matches.
“The next day I remember getting on court and I was so tight,” he said. “I just kept thinking that if this keeps happening, we’re just going to have the worst time ever. I kind of pulled out that win a bit luckily in the super breaker. It definitely wasn’t one of my best matches.”
The remainder of that first chapter in Knoxville provided a number of ups and downs, while concluding with a coaching change.
A CHANGE AT THE HELM
Following the 2016-17 season, then-associate head coach Chris Woodruff was promoted and became the program’s leader.
He quickly hired current associate head coach James McKie and the duo made—in Wiedenmann’s view—the right initial steps to push the program in a positive direction.
“I thought they made some really good changes and adjustments that started with the culture of the team,” Wiedenmann recalled. “We had to be close together, and the things we did in practice was just a change. I mean, we all know Woody knows what he’s doing, so I think it made a difference for me.”
With all of that, some doubts still loomed.
“If I ever thought if this might not be the place for me, it was really in the middle of my sophomore year,” Wiedenmann said. “I would say my freshman year was one of the worst years I’ve played in my career of tennis. I think I was 2-9 in the SEC at No. 6. So, I thought that I would just give it another go in my sophomore year. I didn’t really play at all in the first half of that year, and it’s easy to start to think, ‘I don’t know if they believe in me, or if I’m going to make it here.’”
Then came a night that will forever be remembered in Athens, Georgia.
THE BIRTH OF MR. CLINCHER
“I hadn’t played the entire season, and suddenly at Georgia—our biggest rival—10 minutes before the match, Woody tells me I’m in,” Wiedenmann said. “I knew I was ready for it, but I still hadn’t played at all. At the time they were ranked 10 and we were 25, so it was a very big match, obviously. It was also on four courts as well, so I had to wait another two hours before I could play.”
After falling in the doubles point, the Vols used wins from Adam Walton and Timo Stodder that bookended a singles victory from Georgia to knot things at 2-2.
“I came on at the score of 2-2, someone else lost to make it 2-3 and Scotty Jones had four match points against him to make it 2-4 and that would have been it,” Wiedenmann said. “I was in the middle of the second set and I was thinking—because all of the fans were going nuts three courts down the facility—'Alright, that’s it, I guess. He’s probably going to lose one of these last three points, I’ll pack my bags and that’s it.’ Somehow, (Jones) pulled it off to make it closer, and in that third set I played basically by myself in that facility. Georgia fans aren’t really the nicest fans, and it was quite a tough experience, but I think I learned so much from it for my whole career.”
THE VOLS HAVE DONE IT!
— Tennessee Tennis (@Vol_Tennis) March 25, 2018
Sophomore @LucaWiedenmann wins 6-0 2-6 6-3 at the #6 singles spot against Phillips to give No. 25 Tennessee the 4-3 win over No. 14 Georgia on the road in Athens!!!! Massive win for the squad. Let's go Vols! #GoVols ???????? pic.twitter.com/BoHfVqeDZR
The match? Clinched. The nickname? Bestowed and well earned.
“I think the nickname has really changed my mentality,” Wiedenmann said. “Before that match, I was always hoping while I was playing that I don’t want to be last on court and I don’t want all of that pressure on me. Then, once I did it and with how unbelievable that feeling is, I realized that you just have to embrace that moment and give it your all and it’s either going to be enough, or it’s not going to be enough.”
A CAREER CUT SHORT?
Over the next two years, he didn’t do much else but win matches.
He helped lead Tennessee to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and a birth in the SEC Tennis Championship final match in 2019.
Entering the 2020 dual campaign, expectations were high for Vol tennis. It was a largely returning and veteran-laden team with a massive amount of experience.
The season, for the most part was going as planned. The squad was 14-2 and trending in the right direction at the absolute perfect time.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head.
The season was canceled, and the remainder of Wiedenmann’s college career was in question.
He went back home to Germany not knowing what any of the next steps would or could be.
“It was definitely a tough time there during COVID having to leave early, not knowing what would happen,” he said. “(I didn’t know) whether I would stay in Germany or if I would come back and finish what I still had left here.”
Before long, the NCAA granted every Spring sport student-athlete an extra year of eligibility, leaving Tennessee’s Mr. Clincher with a decision that didn’t end up being much of a decision at all.
“It was probably one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made in my life, to be honest,” Wiedenmann said of returning for the 2020-21 campaign. “I went home and I was checking the Internet every day to see if the NCAA would release something that would allow us to come back. As soon as that got published, I knew there was no question that I was going to come back for one more year.”
MR. CLINCHER BECOMES MR. 100
Entering what would now truly be his final campaign in Knoxville, Wiedenmann owned 83 career singles victories—one win away from cracking the program’s all-time top 20 and 17 away from breaking into elite Vol tennis status and becoming just the 10th Vol to reach 100 career singles triumphs.
“I think this thing with the 100th win started in the Fall when James brought me into his office when I was going through a low,” Wiedenmann explained. “I wasn’t playing well in practice and I wasn’t looking forward to matches and he said, ‘Dude, what are you talking about? You have this incredible opportunity and you have so many wins. So go out, have fun, this is your last year.’ And I think I really embraced that.”
After dropping his first match of the Fall, Wiedenmann proceeded to reel off 16 consecutive singles victories, clinching a few matches along the way.
Soon, he was one win away from 100.
“I remember it was against NC State here and I was at 99 wins and that was the first time I had thought about it while I was playing,” he said. “I thought, ‘Ok, now I can get to 100,’ but my match stopped a few points before the end. So, that was a bit of a stinger.”
While it stung that day, the next weekend at ITA Indoor Nationals, he earned win No. 100 in what was one of the program’s biggest wins in recent history, taking down then-No. 3 TCU, 4-3.
“Honestly, against TCU I didn’t even think about my 100th win, because the team event was so much bigger than anything there could be for myself,” Wiedenmann said. “I didn’t focus on that at all, I just wanted to beat TCU, who was the No. 3 team in the country that day.”
THERES THE MOMENT??
— Tennessee Tennis (@Vol_Tennis) February 13, 2021
WIN NO. 100 FOR LUCA!!!!!
don’t mind how it was done...
Vols lead 2-1!!!!#GBO???? pic.twitter.com/DLkpxHFQBk
Yesterday, he was Mr. ??.
— Tennessee Tennis (@Vol_Tennis) February 14, 2021
He’a back to Mr. Clincher today.
That’s Luca’s 19th career clinch to push your boys past the other UT, 4-2??????#GBO???? pic.twitter.com/tbezXaMXei
TO THE FUTURE
As his final days at UT and the prospect of “the real world” inch closer, despite being a bit uncertain—like so many graduating college seniors—Wiedenmann continues to hold a perspective grounded in gratitude.
“The thought that I’ll be walking out there for the last time (soon) scares me a bit, because this has been home for me during the last four or five years,” he said. “Knowing that I’m never going to play a match again on these courts after that isn’t the greatest feeling. There are so many great memories involved with that, and it’s honestly kind of sad that it has to stop at some point.
“But I think I can just be grateful for what a great time I had here.”
When he does walk away, his desire is not to be remembered as someone who won matches and accomplished things for himself.
Counter to the culture of tennis, he wants to be remembered for what he did for his team.
I don’t want to see it as me, myself, Luca Wiedenmann has got 110 wins—how great? When I leave here, I want it to mean that 110 times, I helped the team get one step closer to a victory in a match, and I think that’s what I can really be proud of myself for when I leave here,” he explained. “I don’t want to look at it too much as a personal accomplishment, but the fact that I was able to help the team so many different times is what this number is really going to mean to me when I look back on it.
